The year has just started but it seems that the neverending challenges and natural disasters are slowly draining the optimism of every Filipino.

Imagine a festive mood towards the end of the year drastically altered by the wrath of Typhoon Ursula that left hundreds of thousands of affected people and several hundred millions worth of damages among properties and agricultural investments.

The series of earthquakes in Southern Philippines and even around Western Visayas is but a few of those circumstances that played a pivotal role in creating an atmosphere of fear among people.

Here comes the sudden eruption of Taal Volcano that made people around it leave their places with nowhere to go disrupting the natural daily mode of life.

Unfortunately some people have become too adventurous to the point of taking advantage of the situation of others at the expense of their fellowmen totally disregarding the good values of being a Filipino.

When Taal started pouring out ashes, the face masks being sold around the place and even up to Manila ran out of stock and suddenly are being sold at P200 per piece. 

Instead of getting too concerned about the disaster and how it will affect the lives of the people, a lot are still too engrossed with the “Tala” dance craze that they would rather be more concerned of the approval and disapproval they will get on the social media than starting a help drive to support those who were affected by the volcanic eruption.

Some are so into interpreting the smoke formation atop the volcano identifying it as the face of Jesus Christ while a few are reading the series of events as the end of times adding only panic to the injuries incurred.

Even the government cannot respond efficiently as the money allocated for disbursement are not yet available since the remaining budget has been disbursed already to comply with the requirements prescribed by law every yearend.

While it is noteworthy to say that not all are into taking advantage of the tragic events for their own benefits, the facts remains, these not so good acts are so Filipino that needs to change for the better.

Perhaps it’s the state of life in the country that pushes others to take advantage of their fellowmen in need and at the same time not mind the tragedy of a few. Maybe it’s the attitude. Somehow the Filipinos as a people are really tired already. 

Life is a struggle though. We can only pray that as a people we will not give up the fight. It’s still a long way to go.